KR20150065738A - Method, computer program product, and electronic control device for locating parking space for vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

The following features are provided for locating the parking space of the vehicle in the destination:
- connection data assigned to a destination for a plurality of data servers (3, 4, 5) in which each data relating to at least one parking space is stored is stored in the connection server (2)
A search request for searching for the position of the parking space in the destination is inquired to the connection server 2,
The connection server 2 forms a connection to the data servers 3, 4 and 5 using the allocation data and inquires whether or not the available data for available parking spaces in the destinations are stored in the respective data banks do. In the case where the available data exists, response data is transmitted from the respective data servers 3, 4 and 5 to the connection server 2.
Access server lookup can be done in several steps as follows:
The first parking space data related to the destination is inquired by the connection server 2 and the data server 3, 4, 5 A response is made as to whether each data server contains parking space data for the destination by corresponding first response data,
- Based on the first response data, it is determined at the connection server 2 which server among the respective data servers 3, 4 and 5 is preselected,
- at least one data server (3, 4, 5) from the preselected data server (3, 4, 5) is selected as the selection server and in the second inquiry step each second response data is called for the selection server , The second response data is more detailed than the respective first response data for at least the parking space position.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a method, a computer program product, and an electronic control device for searching a position of a parking space of a vehicle,

Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method, a computer program product, and an electronic control device for searching a position of a parking space of a vehicle.

Particularly in many cities, traffic congestion in most parking spaces is significant, so it is difficult for a driver to find a parking space that is available, for example, in the rush hour of traffic jams or on weekends. Because of this, vehicles usually have to travel on the road for a longer period of time to find parking spaces. This can lead to further deterioration of the traffic situation as a whole and adds traffic that can lead to traffic congestion.

US 2010/0302068 A1 discloses a search system in which people leaving the parking space announce this information to an information platform that other mobile users can access via mobile devices. A user calling this information can freely go to a known runner space as intended. Communication can be done through a smart phone, a mobile device, using a so-called app. In this case, the GPS (Global Positioning System) of the mobile device can also be used to limit the search results to a known parking space available, which can be reached within a short time by the user searching the parking space . As a result, the risk that the parking space is randomly occupied by other vehicles in the meantime can be reduced. Nevertheless, it is not possible to rule out this undesirable situation of useless parking space search and the high volatility associated with this provided parking space.

WO 03/039040 A1 discloses a retrieval system for retrieving a parking space within an area scheduled by a reservation server, for example, a parking space in a parking lot can be reserved in advance. An inquiry is made by the server as to whether the parking space is provided for a predetermined time range in the data bank, and in some cases, the reservation related data, for example the vehicle identifier, is stored in the data bank and the reservation is confirmed. In this case, undesirably, such reservation services and reserved parking spaces may require complex technical measures, including, for example, management for entry control, to ensure reservations. The reservation service and the reserved parking space are not desirable, for example, even though the low-cost parking space on the road is available, because the search for the parking space involves a partly significant parking charge.

WO 2012/092276 A2 discloses a method for modeling the probability of availability of parking spaces on the road.

The contents of the publication are incorporated by reference in the description of the present invention.

An object of the present invention is to enable a flexible and reliable position search of a parking space of a vehicle in a destination.

The above-mentioned problems are solved by the present invention as set forth in the independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.

According to the present invention there are provided the following features for locating a parking space of a vehicle in a destination:

Connection data assigned to a destination for a plurality of data servers, in which each data relating to at least one parking space is stored, is stored in an access server,

A search request for searching for the position of the parking space in the destination is inquired to the connection server,

The access server forms a connection to the data server using the allocation data, and inquires whether each data bank stores available data for the available parking space in the destination. When there is available data, response data is transmitted from each data server to the connection server.

The inquiry of the connection server is made in several steps so that a pre-selection of the data server is made in the first inquiry step, in which case the first parking space data related to the destination is inquired by the connection server, A response is made by the response data as to whether each data server contains parking space data for the destination. Then, in the connection server, based on the first response data, it is determined which one of the respective data servers is preselected. Subsequently, at least one data server from the preselected data server is selected as the selection server. Each second response data is called for a selection server in a second inquiry step, and the second response data is more detailed than each first response data for at least a parking space location.

  The features according to the invention may be implemented in a method, a computer program product and / or an electronic control device.

According to the present invention, various search systems or data servers of the system are technically combined so as to be able to select each data server that best suits a search query based on a predetermined search criterion or a search provider operating this data server Has been found to be desirable for efficient parking space search and designation. To this end, it may also be desirable for the anonymous response data to be evaluated at the connection server, and a comparison of the response data of the data banks used in the various retrieval systems or in the retrieval system using the evaluations may be desirable. The evaluation of the anonymous and / or detailed response data may in this case be based on a data server specific correction factor, which is dynamically changed in the connection server, and in this case in the process of searching for the position of the parking space Each determined at least one property value is used for the change. The characteristic value may be automatically calculated, for example, using the information obtained by the GPS, or the data of the vehicle operation, such as the time of operation of the engine until parking after receipt of complete parking space information or the distance traveled to the parking space And can be determined automatically by using. If the vehicle was actually moved to a determined location in the parking space but was not parked there for a predetermined amount of time, this would be an indication, for example, that the parking space-information was not suitable. The correction factor assigned to the associated data server is adjusted down with lower reliability. The variation of the correction coefficient can be made by a plurality of search queries according to a statistical method.

According to the present invention, preferably, a two-step inquiry is performed, and on the one hand, the data amount can be restricted because the whole of the available data of all the search providers is not automatically transmitted, Is transmitted. The response data in the first inquiry step may be available data and / or data derived therefrom. As the first response data, for example, expected parking space search time, data on distance from the destination, or data relating to the cost and / or the parking fee related to the search service may be provided. A data terminal, for example, a navigation system or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), which is provided in the vehicle and particularly in the access server due to the limitation of the amount of data in the first inquiry step and requests a search for the location search of the parking space in the destination, The cost and utilization rate for the mobile wireless network providing the connection can be saved.

 The first response information does not particularly include information regarding the accurate parking space position. This ensures that the specific record of the search provider is selected from the user side, for example, the specific reservation data of the parking lot is formed and the second inquiry step, which is transmitted as the second response data, is carried out before moving to the parking space . The response data of the second inquiry step can be used to determine the correct parking space using GPS coordinates and to reproduce images around the parking space or parking space and / . ≪ / RTI >

In another preferred embodiment, the access server queries the data server about the availability of response data at a predetermined destination at a predetermined time interval, regardless of the search request. It is also possible for the search providers to be able to connect their respective data servers to the connection server independently, for example to store the network address of the data server, for example an internet network address, Especially when an interface is provided. The access server and the data server interact with each other through a computer program module stored and loaded through the interface and / or thereon, such that the access server automatically accesses the data at a predetermined time interval, e.g., daily, weekly, It inquires all stored data servers whether the server includes the corresponding data and, in some cases, which destination includes the corresponding data. Such a general availability-query data exchange can be made, at least in part, as in the first query step of a specific parking space search. The connection server can be selected using the criteria set in the vehicle.

The type, format and range of data between the connection server and the data server are preferably predetermined, and in this case, the minimum range of data and / or the maximum range of data can be determined. Since the data range can be similarly set between the access server and the terminal located in the vehicle, the operator of the terminal can obtain each consistent data range through a consistent operator interface regardless of the selected search provider. Also preferably, the user does not need to be confronted with the various systems of the various search providers, but only a system of one contact partner that can act as a consistent interface and guarantee the consistent quality of the search service to the user.

In another preferred embodiment, at least position data (coordinates) of the parking space are transmitted from the second response data to the navigation system provided in the vehicle. The navigation system can determine the path to the direct parking space and display the path on the display.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

1 shows the structure of a control computer;
2 is a flowchart showing a search process;

In the structure shown in Fig. 1, the vehicle-computer 1 includes a navigation system of a vehicle through which a runner-space search query is generated and search results can be displayed. The vehicle-computer 1 or the navigation system 1 can be mounted in a vehicle, for example, in a passenger car or a freight car, or can be carried in a vehicle as a mobile device, for example in the form of a PDA. Also shown is a connection server 2, which is provided in a computer center and is connected via a network connection 6 to a number of local data servers, and three data servers 3, 4, 5) are shown by way of example only. The network connection 6 may be wholly or partly wireless or wired, respectively, and may optionally be secured or unsecured and may be formed, for example, over the Internet. To this end, the Internet addresses of the data servers 3, 4 and 5 are stored in the address-memory 9 of the connection server 2. The connection between the vehicle computer 1 and the connection server 2 is made by mobile wireless communication and / or by an internet connection 7. In connection with the data transmission between the vehicle computer 1 and the data servers 3, 4 and 5, the connection server 2 functions as a proxy, that is, the vehicle computer 1 is only connected to the connection server 2 And does not communicate with the data server 3, 4, 5.

By the method described below, various services including the same coverage area, in this embodiment various (other kinds of) parking space search services can be operated by one coherent interface. The user of the server directly communicates with the connection server 2 using the vehicle computer 1 and is not replaced with the connection server to communicate with a plurality of data servers 3, Quality assurance and processing of the search query is performed at the center of the connection server 2.

A number of search providers operating data servers 3, 4, 5 may be able to make paid reservations of parking spaces online, for example as parking operators, enable payment systems to be integrated together in searches, It is possible to provide a very wide variety of parking space search services as a public free portal that notifies free parking spaces in real time or as an individual leasing his / her parking space for a short period of time. The search providers may also provide an automatic statistic crowd-sourced method, which uses an automatic correction model of the parking status to calculate a navigation path that is most likely to have free space.

The search provider may use a method for searching and / or designating available parking spaces, particularly those disclosed in the above publications. The contents of the publication are thus again referred to here.

The data servers 3, 4 and 5 of the search provider are connected to the vehicle computer 1 (proxy) via the connection computer 2 (proxy) and its network interface 8a by the network interfaces 8b, 8c and 8d in accordance with the search query. As shown in FIG. In this case, the vehicle computer 1 communicates only with the connection computer 2 without communicating with the data servers 3, 4 and 5 of the various suppliers. This control computer 2 conveys the customer's query to the parking space search service company's computer 3, 4, 5 connected thereto. The registration of the new data server of the parking space service provider can be made simple by supporting a new data server with the interface defined in the connection server 2, in which case the network address of the new data server is stored in the connection server 2 , And various information related to the scope of the search service, for example, the area where the search service is provided, the type of the search service, the guaranteed parking space, and the statistical extraction of the public parking space.

A method in which the parking space search is processed and notified to the vehicle computer 1 can be presented as follows with reference to Fig.

In the vehicle computer 1, the operator designates, for example, through a graphical operation field, an operator, for example, a place and time display of the parking space to be searched. This may be achieved automatically, for example, by a single push button when the location and time are presented from the current route guidance (destination and approximate arrival time) of the navigation system of the vehicle computer 1, Lt; / RTI > In this case, for example, whether a parking space within a short time or as close as possible to the destination is searched, such as a reservation in a parking lot or a free public parking space search, whether the parking space is searched as cheaply as possible, , Which vehicle model or which vehicle size (e.g., compact car, mid-size vehicle, SUV, HGV) is parked. This makes it possible to optimize the search and to evaluate the search results on the user side.

The search query is transmitted to the connection server 2 (proxy) over the wireless network, for example, in step S1. The access server contacts all available data servers (3, 4, 5) of various search service providers. In particular, in order to keep the amount of data to be transmitted and processed small, the communication between the connection server 2 and the data server 3, 4, 5 is carried out stepwise (in a cascade manner) as follows:

A first approximate query is made to the relevant search provider (step 1 of the cascade), such as whether to serve the destination via the data server 3, 4, 5 connected from the proxy 2 in step 2. This query can alternatively be executed in such a way that the proxy 2 inquires of the service provider what area it serves at regular intervals regardless of the user's query. The information of the service coverage is stored in the proxy 2 and used directly to determine which of the data servers 3, 4, 5 is searched for in the search query.

In step S3, the data server 3, 4, 5 notifies the various suppliers of the first response of limited information to the query. The information does not yet include a specific parking space location, but may include the following.

- Estimated parking space search time

- Estimated distance to destination

- Estimated costs (eg parking)

- additional information, such as whether the parking space is guarded, whether there is a roof, whether the parking space is reserved, vacated, or likely to be vacated.

With reference to the above information, a pre-selection of the search service is performed in the connection server 2 in step S4. To this end, the response information is first multiplied by a correction factor (k), which represents the actually determined value of the relevant service and the average deviation of each value. This calibrated information is used to grade the provider's search quality. The selection and grading of suppliers may also depend on search options initially selected by the operator, such as parking lots, public parking spaces, and the like.

Information of the selected search service is transmitted from the connection server 2 to the vehicle computer 1 in step S5 in a ranked order, and is displayed thereon. In step S6, an appropriate search provider is selected and the detailed search query (the second step of the cascade) is transmitted to the corresponding data server 3, 4, 5 via the connection server 2. In step S6, data regarding the parking space position determined at the time of retrieval in the related data server 3, 4, 5 is reported to the vehicle computer 1 and used therefor for navigation of the vehicle to the parking space.

After the vehicle is directed to the parking space, in step S8, the characteristic data relating to the parking space search from the vehicle computer 1, for example, the actual availability of the parking space, the distance to the destination, Whether to transmit or not is determined. The characteristic data is also used to adjust the above-described correction value k for the supplier in step S9. Correction value - Adjustment can be done statistically.

Example for calibration value adjustment:

The supplier confirms, for the parking space, that the parking space is within d = 100 m of the destination. The correction coefficient k for the supplier is 1.5 as a result of 200 search processes so far. Thus, the vehicle computer 1 displays this service as a parking space 150 m away from the destination according to dk = 100 m * 1.5. The value is compared to the corresponding values of all other search services. In this example, 150 m is the minimum of all suppliers. The actually discovered parking space is 250 m away from the destination. In this case, the deviation for the destination distance is 2.5. The correction factor is thus corrected to (200 * 1.5 + 2.5) / 201 = 1.51 in the case of the 201 search process.

In the example, it is also recommended to extend the method by detecting the deviation width, so that the value displayed to the user does not correspond to the expected value (150 m in this example), but is calculated by the correction factor corrected by the standard deviation n d (k + n). If the standard deviation of the correction coefficient is, for example, 0.5 and n = 1, then an indication of 200 m will be provided.

The correction method can basically be arbitrarily improved. For example, one correction factor may be used for all values in step S4, or each correction factor may be used for each of the values. Only one correction coefficient, each of which is optional, can be corrected, and the correction coefficient is selected to be determinative for an accurate search or includes a high priority coefficient. For example, if a high priority is provided near a given destination, only the correction factor for the distance can be changed, and the correction factor for the time is not changed. Alternatively, all values may be changed.

The equation for the correction factor or for the modification of the correction factor may become more complex. For example, a particular supplier may represent a particular object as being particularly well served, other objects may be seen as being constructed, and various deviation widths or correction factors may be provided for correspondingly diverse objects.

The correction factors can be calculated based on the changing mean value instead of the absolute mean value as described. Thus, time variations can also be included. Search providers with too high a standard deviation or too high a correction factor may be excluded from the search.

The above-described computer-controlled systems may be implemented in a computer-readable medium such as, for example, a computer-readable medium, such as a computer-readable medium, such as a computer readable medium, Projection displays) and RAM, ROM, network- and / or mobile wireless cards for wired and / or wireless network access. The corresponding computer program product may be stored and loaded into the RAM and / or ROM of the system of the relevant computer control system and executed by the microprocessor. The computer program product may be stored, loaded and executed as a file regardless of whether it is downloaded from a data server, for example, or may be provided to a data carrier, or partially stored in a variety of related systems. The computer program product may also be configured in a modular fashion, and each of the individual modules may be loaded and / or executed in various related computer systems.

1 vehicle computer
2 connection server
3, 4, and 5 data servers
6 Network connection
7 Internet access
8b, 8c, 8d network interface
9 address memory

Claims (11)

A method for searching a position of a parking space of a vehicle in a destination,
- connection data assigned to a destination for a plurality of data servers (3, 4, 5) in which each data relating to at least one parking space is stored is stored in the connection server (2)
A search request for searching for the position of the parking space in the destination is inquired to the connection server 2,
The connection server 2 forms a connection to the data servers 3, 4 and 5 using the allocation data and inquires whether or not the available data for available parking spaces in the destinations are stored in the respective data banks Response data is transmitted from each of the data servers 3, 4 and 5 to the connection server 2 when available data exists,
The inquiry of the connection server is performed in several steps as follows:
The first parking space data related to the destination is inquired by the connection server 2 and the data server 3, 4, 5 A response is made as to whether each data server contains parking space data for the destination by corresponding first response data,
- Based on the first response data, it is determined at the connection server 2 which server among the respective data servers 3, 4 and 5 is preselected,
- at least one data server (3, 4, 5) from the preselected data server (3, 4, 5) is selected as the selection server and in the second inquiry step each second response data is called for the selection server Wherein the second response data is more refined than the respective first response data for at least a parking space location. 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that anonymous response data is evaluated at the connection server (2) and the responses of the various data servers (3, 4, 5) are made using the evaluation. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the evaluation of anonymous and / or detailed response data is based on a data server-specific correction coefficient, the correction coefficient is dynamically changed in the connection server (2) Characterized in that at least one property value determined at the time of locating the parking space is used for the change. 4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the modification of the correction coefficient is carried out according to at least one statistical method, which is terminated by a respective data server (3, 4, 5), in particular based on a number of search processes for the destination parking space ≪ / RTI > 5. A data server (3, 4, 5) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the connection server (2) is connected to the data server (3, 4, 5) on the availability of response data at a predetermined destination at a predetermined time interval, ≪ / RTI > Method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the connection server (2) is provided with an open network interface, the data servers (3, 4, 5) are registerable via the interface, (6). ≪ / RTI > 7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the selection of the connection server (2) is made using a criterion set in the vehicle (1). The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that a search request for searching for a position of a parking space in a destination is inquired to the connection server (2) by an electronic control device (1) provided in the vehicle Way. 9. The navigation system according to claim 8, wherein the control device (1) is a navigation device provided in the vehicle, at least a part of the second response data is position data of a parking space, the position data is input to a navigation device ≪ / RTI > is used for routing. 10. A computer program product, characterized in that it carries out the process of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 upon loading and execution in at least one computer (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). An electronic control device in which a computer program product according to claim 10 is loaded.

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